Letter to the Editor: Techly article 'New Australian e-Safety Commissioner could be censorship czar'

To the editor,

I’d like to point out a range of factual errors in the article ‘New Australian e-Safety Commissioner could be censorship czar’. The statement that the government is preparing to “legislate wide-ranging internet censorship” is incorrect, as is the claim that the scheme will cover “absolutely anything the government wants”.

The Coalition Government has announced it will appoint a Children’s e-Safety Commissioner to take a national leadership role in online safety for children. We will ensure that there is an effective complaints system, backed by legislation, to get harmful cyber-bullying material that targets Australian children removed from large social media sites.

The scheme applies specifically to cyberbullying material – that is, content targeted at and harmful to an Australian child. It is not a general content regulation scheme. These measures will apply only to communications directed at children; they have no impact on freedom of speech between adults.  In addition, they will only apply where a child (that is, someone under 18) at whom cyberbullying material is targeted (or an adult on the child’s behalf) makes a complaint.

The Commissioner will oversee light-touch regulation of large social media sites to ensure rapid removal of cyber-bullying material targeted at and harmful to an Australian child. The Commissioner will also have the power to issue a notice requiring the person who posted the cyber-bullying material to take it down. If the person does not comply the Commissioner will be able to refer the matter to police.

The article incorrectly claims that the scheme will impose “censorship without full formal legal channels, or time for appeal”. There are already criminal law provisions which address cyber-bullying behaviour– for example, section 474.15 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, which deals with ‘using a carriage service to make a threat’ and section 474.17 which deals with ‘using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.’ The Commissioner will act as key contact point, triaging complaints, and where necessary referring behaviour that meets a criminal standard to the police.

It is worth pointing out that large social media sites today have terms of use which allow them to remove material on a range of grounds, including cyber-bullying. The arrangements which the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner will administer are designed to interwork with the existing processes of the large social media sites.

A very clear principle is that the first step is for the complainant to report the cyber-bullying material to the large social media site under its established processes.  If a site receives a complaint and acts on it promptly, there will be no need for the complainant to go to the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner – and the scheme will have no impact at all on the operation of the site’s normal processes. It is only if the site does not respond that Commissioner may issue a notice to the participating social media site to remove the cyber-bullying material.

In our society, there are a range of areas where we put in place extra protections for children. The Government has responded to widespread community concern that more should be done to protect Australian children from harmful cyber-bullying material and to give them the safest possible online environment